1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a call-connecting device, a call-connecting method, a call-connecting program, and a call-accepting server.
2. Discussion of the Background
Conventionally, a so-called pay-per-call type of system is known whereby users call advertisers according to advertised information published in magazines or the like, and then the magazine publisher charges the store owners relevant fees according to the frequency of the phone calls.
Advertisements using this type of pay-per-call are provided by publishing telephone numbers used for the advertisements (advertised telephone number) together with the advertised information provided by the advertisers in publications such as Web pages on a Web site on the Internet, newspapers, and magazines. For example, such advertisements are provided by administrators for the Web sites and magazine publishers who act as an agency (e.g., advertising agency) for example, on behalf of the advertiser itself.
Thus, once a user who has browsed such advertised information makes a call to the advertiser at the advertised telephone number that has been published together with the advertised information, the number of calls are tallied, and then the advertising fees are charged to the advertiser according to the number thereof (e.g., see Japanese Patent Application Publication Nos. 2002-300323 and 2002-312687).
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2002-300323 discloses that a call made by a user from a user terminal is transferred to an advertiser who provides advertised information corresponding to a push-button signal sent from the user terminal, and then the conversation history for this transferred telephone is recorded. Thereafter, the amount charged for the transfer is calculated according to the conversation history, and this calculated charged amount is recorded per advertiser and charged to the relevant advertiser.
Additionally, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2002-312687 discloses that a hiring company concludes a contract with an advertising company for registering a contact destination number as a contract number, and the advertising company registers, with a telephone office, a toll-free (free telephone conversation) transfer service in which the contract number is a transfer destination, and then discloses job information, including the public number that is a transfer source number. Once an applicant makes a call to the public number after checking the job information, the telephone office transfers the call to the hiring company and counts the number of conversations, and then charges the hiring company with the information usage fees in addition to the conversation charges. This case adopts a system in which the difference in the amount whereby an agency commission is deducted from the amount of payment made by the hiring company is paid by the telephone office to the advertising company.
The contents of Japanese Patent Application Publication Nos. 2002-300323 and 2002-312687 are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
However, the configuration of Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2002-300323 has the problem that operation is troublesome, because the user needs to specify the advertiser by operating push-buttons according to a voice message made by an IVR (Interactive Voice Response) responding unit until the telephone call between the user and the advertiser is connected.
Additionally, the configuration of Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2002-312687 has the problem that it is impossible to identify which advertisements were effective if the advertiser requests advertisements by a plurality of agencies and if a plurality of advertisements are published on different dates. For example, it is impossible to distinguish the calls made by checking the job information from the calls made to the advertiser with the contract number that has been passed directly from other people without browsing the job information. In addition, in a case in which similar services are received with one contract number from among a plurality of advertising companies, the telephone office cannot identify the adverting companies, so the effectiveness of the advertisement cannot be distinguished per advertising company.